ROBERT DOLE VISITS VUKOVAR

( Editorial: --> 9660 ) VUKOVAR, April 26 (Hina) - The chairman of the International Commission for Missing Persons, US Senator Robert Dole, visited Vukovar, eastern Croatia, on Sunday. The purpose of his visit was to give moral support to the families of missing and imprisoned people ahead of the exhumation at the New Cemetery in Vukovar, Dole told reporters. At the U.N. headquarters in Vukovar, Dole met representatives of the Association of Families of Missing and Imprisoned People, the head of the U.N. Police Support Group, Souren Seraydarian, and heads of ministries which are participating in the exhumation, lead by the president of the Commission for Missing and Imprisoned People, Lieutenant Ivan Grujic. Attending the meeting was also the president of the Croatian Victimology Society, Zvonimir Separovic. Senator Dole said that considerable progress had been made in the work of the commission he was chairing. He said he did not come to solve political problems but help the families of the missing and imprisoned, regardless of their nationality. The US senator said he would visit Croatia again in two months. Speaking about the Dayton agreement, Dole said he was not competent to speak about its fate, but expressed doubt that it might be revised. The president of the Croatian Victimology Society, Zvonimir Separovic, said Croatia was still searching for 1,050 persons. The Serb side had still not sent lists with the names of victims from Ovcara or Lovas, he added. "There are still about 40 Croatian citizens in the Serbian prisons who were tried for war crimes, but were pardoned by the Dayton agreement. It is up to the Serb side to release them," Separovic said adding that it would be demanded at the first victimology congress that Serbs, Jews and Gypsies, together with Croats, speak up about their victims as well. Separovic stressed the importance of Senator Dole's role. Before his visit to the U.N. headquarters, Dole visited the New Cemetery, where the exhumation of about 1,200 persons should begin on April 28. (hina) rm 262004 MET apr 98